(Photo: Reuters)

In a report issued on Monday, the Ministry of Health shared the death of 28 people from COVID-19 and 1,094 confirmed cases of the said virus. 

Hugo-Lopez Gatell, Deputy Health Minister, said that Mexico is facing a continuous increase in the number of infected citizens. There are currently 2,752 suspected cases of COVID-19, while 5,635 cases tested negative of coronavirus. 

The report also confirms 8 new deaths increasing the total number of deaths due to coronavirus to 28. As of Monday, there have been a total of 9,481 individuals studied for the pandemic in Mexico. 

The Deputy Health Minister announced that they will enforce new measures to strengthen the mitigation strategy and extend the suspension of unimportant activities until April 30th. 

Suspension of non-essential activities

The suspension of non-essential activities has been extended until April 30th due to the increasing number of suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus. 

The government of Mexico only allows activities that involve labor and administrative works in the health sector, public safety, and citizen protection. 

Sectors that are also deemed necessary to keep the country's economy afloat will also remain active along with social programs. Maintenance of infrastructures that provide basic necessities is also allowed to continue their operations. 

Sectors deemed as essential will only have about 50 people to be operational. They urge the public to stay at home and stay away from any social gathering.

COVID-19 Phase 2

The government has announced phase 2 of the pandemic on Tuesday. As an action, the government of Mexico has launched a program called, Jornada Nacional de Sana Distancia (Healthy Distance). This program highly recommends the suspension of unnecessary activities in both the public and private sectors. Phase 2 also means contagion can now be brought locally unlike phase 1 where it only considered international transmission. 

Mexico has suspended the federal government's unnecessary work and has asked most companies to send their workers home. The public is mandated to stay at home as a measure to keep the virus from spreading. 

The program, Jornada Nacional de Sana Distancia, should be strictly followed to prevent the virus from spreading even more. The government said that by staying at home, the public is helping the government more so the contagion does not escalate furthermore. 

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Official laboratories in the country have not approved any coronavirus test kits that provide immediate results as they believe it might provide false results. 

The government also reinforces quarantine measures which will last for 28 days. Individuals who have fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing are recommended to self-quarantine for 4 days but if the situation escalates, they must immediately seek medical attention. 

The Ministry of Public Education reiterated that this should not be taken as a vacation but rather a precautionary measure to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Also, the ministry advised the public that distance learning will be implemented for educational establishments. 

Several private companies have reduced work hours and implemented work from home options for their workers.